E3: the place for all things interaction and entertainment.

We're back again from another insightful experience at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, where the latest in gaming is on full display. This industry is an important one to follow as it constantly collectively pushes forward new technologies to connect and captivate.

The BBC starts a regular public television broadcasting service in the UK.

Late 1990's-early 2000's

Reality TV becomes massively popular, with Survivor, Big Brother and American Idol leading the way.

2000

Traditional cable television subscriptions in the US peaked around the year 2000, at 68.5 million total subscriptions. Since then, cable subscriptions have been in slow decline, dropping to 54.4 million subscribers by December 2013.

2001

Twitch, a live streaming platform, is launched, giving gamers the ability to watch or broadcast live game play. It now boasts 15 million daily viewers and more than 2 million streamers.

2005

YouTube is established and YouTubers are born, developing on-demand, simple to create entertainment content by anyone.

2006

Microsoft introduces Mixer, a streaming platform that focuses on interaction, giving broadcasters the option to offer special controls to their viewers. The platform now boasts 10 million active users.

2014

Musical.ly, a social network app for video creation and live broadcasting is launched, giving people a platform for creating music and video content and easily sharing with others.

2017

The number of Netflix subscribers equals that of all cable subscribers combined; 73% of all US households

Watching other people game while they talk over it has become huge; anyone has a chance at stardom and money.

Companies like Twitch and Mixer give the player the capability to reach out to find content or become content.

This content replaces traditional entertainment. Why watch a 30 minute tv episode weekly when I can watch a gaming personality play a game for hours every day at any time?

An estimated 103 million people watched the Super Bowl last year.

Just a few months after the Super Bowl, the League of Legends Midseason Invitational, hosted by Riot Games, garnered a worldwide audience of 360 million people.

Each football represents 10 million people.

Each controller represents 10 million people.

More traditional entertainment creators are joining the bandwagon as 17 NBA franchises paid 102 players from around the world a reported minimum of $32,000 for 6 months to play a video game called "NBA 2K."

We just can’t help but dive a little deeper in our constant search for knowledge. We conducted an impromptu survey of 10 gamers about their travel habits around gaming. Here’s what we heard.

complained about the internet in the air.

of these console gamers don’t play games on mobile phones.

do use an airline app to watch movies in flight.

pay for internet on the plane. Some might pay if the internet was good enough to support play.

came prepared with devices that don’t require internet like a Nintendo DS or Switch.

of gaming is entirely online. Will air travel ever support this?

Tournament VR enables gamer fans to have the choice of which player and view they want to watch, in contrast to televised sports or cable programming, giving fans more access and control than ever before.

Cybershoes strap on to the gamer’s feet letting players physically run through virtual worlds. These new hardware accessories are good to see as VR matures, unfortunately 'walking' while sitting is not comfortable and we think unlikely to take off in current form.

Targeted toward people suffering from dementia, this student project paired IoT (in-room lighting to match the environment) with a box full of tactile objects to pair with scenes to enable users to engage and experience different environments.

Stepstone Island uses the data collected by the health app on smartphones, converting real steps into game currency. The currency can be used to buy tools to improve the players’ virtual environments.

A new kind of controller caught our eye- while we didn’t see it at E3, it’s an important industry development. The Xbox Adaptive Controller enables gamers with disabilities to play Xbox and PC games after customizing the controller to exactly what they need in order to play in the way that is most comfortable for them.

As we connect our house to smart speakers and apps, we’re shocked that games or consoles don’t have connections to smart lights to enhance the cinematic experience, or at least set timers to get a player to take a break from playing.

of players only being allowed to play with users of the same console are almost gone.

because currently Sony does not want to allow their players access to Xbox players.

some new games allow playing from Xbox to Nintendo to PC and mobile phones.

Nostalgia is still a driver for classic games. What is interesting is that while companies like Atari, Nintendo and Sega have made money packaging retro units that come loaded with dozens of classic games, some new companies see a need to make single game consoles again.

Graphics re-done to fill a modern screen.

Single game micro-arcade consoles can be held in your hand.

3rd party hardware has been developed with a bit of a size reduction and ergonomic improvements to play genuine classic Atari games.

The industry has evolved to require the story of the game to be as good or better than a movie. Most story-based games have cut scenes with CG versions of motion captured with professional, big-name actors and voices. Gamers want to be in the game, while developers often describe their ultimate goal to produce a cinematic experience.

VR is nice, but you can't beat IRL (In Real Life). Augmented Reality (AR) can allow for a more natural experience people are accustomed to.

The brand value of a game goes far behind just players engaging through their console. They’re watching others play and are even watching developers create in crowdfunded documentaries created by noclip.

Customized controllers for gamers are a bit like athletic shoes- a status symbol, a means of communicating a personality or brand and that extra gaming edge.

If you have to have a custom Scuf Gaming Controller inspired by the Porche 911 GT2 RS and you live in Europe, you're going to have to stop in to your local Porche dealership to get your hands on it.